Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #1: Bounty Hunters, Forty Lashes Less One, and Gunsights - Softcover

Leonard, Elmore

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385333226 ISBN 13: 9780385333221

Publisher: Delta, 1998

Synopsis

Bounty Hunters: He is a legend in the rugged Arizona Territory--a U.S. cavalry-turned-army scout--and the only man alive who can bring in the fierce Mimbre Apache called Soldado Viejo. But for David Flynn, tracking down an elusive Indian with a price on his head south of the border is a dangerous business...especially when a cunning outlaw and a murderous bounty hunter dog his path. Now Flynn's riding hard for trouble on a bloody trail of treachery and slaughter in a lawless land where a man's got to watch his back against friend and enemy, red man and white man alike. And if he's Flynn--on the deadliest mission of his career--that means a one-way trip into a sultry desert hell...where the hunter is about to become the hunted...and where one man's struggle for justice has just erupted in the battle of his life....

Forty Lashes Less One: A hellhole like Yuma Prison does all sorts of things to a man. Mostly it makes him want to escape. For two men facing life sentences--Harold Jackson, the only black man behind the walls, and Raymond San Carlos, an Apache halfbreed--a breakout seemed nigh on impossible. That is, until the law gave them two choices: rot in a cell, or track down and bring back the five most ruthless men in Arizona.

Gunsights: Brendan Early and Dana Moon. They were always something to see; real professionals, two of the toughest characters any man ever aimed a gun at. Sure they spent half their time feuding. But once there was the smell of guns and maybe a hint of glory in the air, they teamed up--armed to the teeth to grin down to trouble. Now they were holed up on an Arizona mountain with a copper war primed to explode in their faces. Early and Moon, together they fought through hell. Now they've got a fight to the finish.

About this title

Review

When Elmore Leonard was just starting out as a writer, a man could make a living writing Westerns, especially if he was good at it--and Elmore Leonard was one of the best. In his Western novels, you can see the earliest traces of themes that would emerge in his contemporary crime novels. Although sheriffs and cavalry men look a little different than cops and G-men, Leonard's outlaws, bounty hunters, and mercenaries are the same in both worlds: tough and determined because they know that their lives depend on presence of mind and skillful execution of the task at hand, as The Bounty Hunters and Gunsights reveal. And Leonard's prose is even more stripped down than usual, reduced to the bare essentials of plot and character. The reader's told exactly what he or she needs to know, and not one bit of information more.

Of the three novels reprinted here (plus the other five in Western Roundup #2 and Western Roundup #3), Forty Lashes Less One is something of an anomaly. It's set in the Yuma Territorial Prison, sure, but the year is 1909. Eventually, it becomes clear that what we're dealing with here is actually a prison-break novel in which at least half a dozen factions are playing off each other, with two men at the center: Harold Jackson and Raymond San Carlos, the only two nonwhite convicts, who get put through a grueling physical regimen by a missionary warden who thinks it'll help them develop self-esteem. With its multiple perspectives and serpentine plot twists, this is ultimately as good an escape story as Out of Sight--if not better. --Ron Hogan

About the Author

ELMORE LEONARD is the author of Bandits, Touch, Freaky Deaky, Killshot, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, Rum Punch, Pronto, Riding the Rap, Out of Sight, Cuba Libre, and other works—all national bestsellers and critical successes. In 1992, the Mystery Writers of America gave Leonard the Grand Master Award. Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Jackie Brown (based on Rum Punch) were Hollywood blockbusters; Maximum Bob was an ABC-TV miniseries. He lives in Bloomfield, Michigan.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delta
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385333226
• ISBN 13: 9780385333221
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 512